There can be no proper application without an accurate understanding of a passage in its context. We must realize that there is an intended meaning when the author wrote. His intended meaning doesn’t change with the culture or the reader, nor can a passage ever mean what it has never meant in the past. The Bible doesn’t teach that God gives personal subjective meanings to each of us as we need them. If it can mean anything, then it doesn’t mean anything. If the meaning is not objective and fixed for all time, it can be twisted to mean anything that the reader wants it to mean. So many people are doing this every day. They are claiming the Holy Spirit revealed a personal meaning from a text or phrase in the Bible that is cited out of context and the intent of the author. Peter writes that no prophecy of Scripture is based on one’s own private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20), but that it was given by the Holy Spirit through men (Paul’s “earthen vessel” of 2 Cor. 4:7). Seeing that revelation is not a matter of one’s private interpretation but fixed by objective revelation, how do we explain why there are so many different interpretations of Scripture?
We cannot deny the existence of multiple views taken from the same passage, but the fact remains that we are influenced by our training, even among those of us who believe the revelation of God is fixed with one intended meaning of the author. Seeing that we are all subject to this weakness, the best approach is for us all to acknowledge it and admit that each view we take is based on how we interpret the passages. The fact that our view is how we interpret isn’t proof that the interpretation is wrong. To admit that we might be wrong is also an admission that there is a right interpretation. So, when someone tells you, “That’s just your interpretation,” proves nothing because it does not invalidate it as inaccurate. One of the problems that exists when we repeatedly hear, “That’s just your interpretation,” is the implication that we can never know its true meaning with certainty. Therefore, the only acceptable conclusion is that there are various possible interpretations all of which are subjective and personal. However, just because differences exist doesn’t mean that there is no right answer. When disagreements exist, both views cannot be right, but both views can be wrong. Still, just because different views exist doesn’t mean that one of them isn’t right or that truth cannot be known.